The Impact of Sugar on Female Hormone Health
Kelly Parcell
Posted On:
December 5, 2024
It’s the most wonderful time of the year…for an abundance of festivities, celebrations, decadence, indulgence, and pounds of sugar.
Sugar is far more than just a dietary carbohydrate. Its meaning and significance run deep culturally, environmentally, psychologically, and physically. Unsurprisingly, it becomes so tempting and addictive for many people, especially during the holiday season.
Let’s dive into the impact of sugar and how it profoundly influences your physical health and emotional well-being, with a targeted effect on your female reproductive hormonal health.
Unpacking Carbohydrates
Our bodies depend on carbohydrates, along with protein and fat. This macronutrient is the primary source of fuel or energy required for creating and sustaining human life.
Under that large umbrella of carbohydrates, we have various types and forms based on their biochemical structure.
The biochemical structure of carbohydrates—along with your individual health and metabolism—will determine how quickly or efficiently they are absorbed and metabolized and, ultimately, how they affect your body. This is a crucial point to remember.
Metabolism refers to your ability to biochemically extract and convert food and beverages into energy, build and repair your cells, tissues, and organs, and nourish, regulate, and maintain human function and life.
Generally speaking, there are two main categories of carbohydrates: Simple and Complex, with additional and more specific subcategories within those. Simple carbohydrates have a simple or refined biochemical structure. They are, therefore, more easily and readily digested and absorbed into your bloodstream and transported into the cells and organs throughout your body. They are an immediate energy source for your body and may or may not provide nutritional value.
Simple carbohydrates are found in foods like white table sugar (and traditional brown sugar), honey, maple syrup, milk sugar, fruits, some vegetables, juices, sodas, and countless processed foods and beverages, such as baked goods, pastries, desserts, cereals, packaged food, and many others.
Complex carbohydrates have a more complex or stronger biochemical structure and, therefore, take more time and effort to be digested and assimilated by your body. They are more of a sustained energy source for your body and are often of higher nutritional quality. Starches and/or fiber are found in foods like vegetables, fruits, potatoes, squashes, whole grains, bread, pasta, cereals, legumes, beans, nuts, seeds, and others.
Keep in mind that not all simple carbohydrates are harmful to you. And not all complex carbohydrates are beneficial for you. It depends on many factors, such as:
- Amount and quality of carbohydrates you ingest per meal, per day, and over time
- Nutrient density and diversity of the rest of your diet – proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants
- Metabolic rate
- Body mass index (BMI)
- Gender
- Age
- Menopausal vs pre-menopausal female
- Overall health and well-being
- Co-existing medical conditions
- Food intolerances
- Health of your GI tract
- Stress and cortisol levels
- Genetics
- And many others
So, let’s review the impact of excessive or chronic intake of simple carbohydrates—sugar—and how it may affect your female reproductive hormone health.
The Impact of Simple Carbs on Female Hormone Health
When sugar is ingested, your pancreas secretes a hormone called insulin that helps to escort it from the bloodstream into all of the cells and organs throughout your body – including your ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus, cervix, vagina, and breasts.
High amounts of sugar, consistently over time, can lead to chronically elevated insulin levels and, if ignored or left unresolved, can result in insulin resistance. Insulin resistance means that your insulin improperly binds to insulin cell receptors and becomes less sensitive or responsive to glucose, leading to more elevated glucose levels in the bloodstream.
To keep you “safe,” your liver converts this excess glucose into triglycerides and often stores this overabundance as adipose tissue—body fat—throughout your body for long-term energy usage. It’s not ideal for your weight and clothes size, but it’s your body’s method of intentionally protecting and keeping you alive.
Estrogen is primarily made by the ovaries, with a secondary source from the adrenal glands and a third source stored and sometimes produced in fat tissues. Fat tissue is a hormonally active site, especially with excess stored estrogen. Excess sugar, insulin resistance, and elevated fat storage can lead to what’s called Estrogen Dominance.
Estrogen Dominance is where estrogen within the body is significantly higher relative to the amount of progesterone produced and secreted by the ovaries and utilized by the body. Estrogen Dominance is often associated with heavier and/or longer menstrual cycles, more painful uterine menstrual cramping, worsening Pre-Menstrual Syndrome (PMS) symptoms, irregular menstrual cycle timing, infertility, breast tenderness, increased abdominal or belly fat, endometriosis, and Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS).
Excess sugar and insulin resistance can result in an overproduction of the androgenic hormone testosterone by the ovaries, leading to a condition called Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). PCOS may include some or all of the following: irregular menstrual cycles, amenorrhea (temporary absence of menstrual cycles), inconsistent ovulation, infertility, acne or cystic acne, facial hair, excess body hair, hair loss, hypothyroidism, and an overall impaired or poorly functioning metabolism.
A high-sugar diet, especially chronically over time, is extremely stressful to the body. This higher threat or stress results in dysregulated HPA and HPO communication between the hypothalamus (H), pituitary gland (P), adrenal glands (A), and ovaries (O).
Over-indulging in sugar, mixed with elevated cortisol, suppresses the hormone progesterone, leading to imbalanced estrogen to progesterone levels, irregular menstrual cycle bleeding and timing, amenorrhea, worsening PMS symptoms, infertility, anxiety and other mood disorders, increased belly fat, sleep interruption, and other symptoms.
Chronic sugar intake can promote excess inflammation throughout the body, leading to oxidative stress, elevated pain, tenderness, impaired metabolism, malfunctioning hormone signaling, female hormonal disturbances, poor ovarian egg quality and infertility, chronic fatigue, brain and mood disorders, and thereby increasing the risk for autoimmune conditions and other chronic diseases.
For women in Perimenopause (ages ~35 to 55 years old) and Menopause, your reproductive hormones are already fluctuating and declining, leading to symptoms like irregular menstrual cycle bleeding and timing, worsening PMS symptoms, abdominal fat, and weight gain, mood disorders like anxiety, depression, difficulty with focus and concentration, insomnia, gut microbiome changes, reduced stress resilience and more. Accumulated sugar intake during these crucial years just exacerbates your perimenopause symptoms and overall health and well-being.
How to Minimize the Effects of Sugar on Female Hormone Health
Simple, foundational recommendations to minimize the adverse effects of sugar on female hormone health include the following:
Everything in moderation. Less simple carbohydrates and more emphasis on complex, nutrient-rich, low-allergenic carbohydrates like vegetables, fruits, and gluten-free grains.
Don’t bring sugar into the home. Avoid the temptation to overindulge. Or buy other, healthier food and beverage options to replace or substitute for the sugary treats.
Pause before you reach. Take several deep, slow inhales and exhales, and ask yourself, “Do I really need this right now? How will I feel physically and psychologically after I eat this? What does my body, mind, and heart deeply need instead?” Often, you’ll find that sugar is more of an emotional addiction rather than a physical need for food.
Physically move your body several days per week. The most effective, therapeutic form of exercise is muscle strengthening – which substantially boosts your metabolism to more efficiently use your carbohydrates for fuel or energy rather than store them as fat. Not to mention it’s an excellent mental trainer as well.
Practice stress-alleviating practices like meditation, mindfulness, yoga, and breathwork. Immerse yourself in nature, surround yourself with a loving, supportive community, read, sing, journal, and do whatever lights you up the most.